Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Announced and postponed several times throughout the 1990s due to the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures and the resulting renegotiations over rights and who would direct – star Schwarzenegger wanted James Cameron back on board despite Cameron’s growing reputation for running over budget – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was eventually refined down from a script about a female Terminator surprising protagonist John Connor at a dot-com company to an elongated version of the chase sequence from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. A high-octane pursuit across California to a Sierra Nevada military base built to withstand the forthcoming nuclear Holocaust is punctuated by the knowing modification of a few of the more famous bon mots from The Terminator – “I’m back” and “No, John Connor, I’m programmed to obey her commands” and so on.